How to Assess Talent for Your Network Security Jobs

Assessing candidates for network security jobs is crucial to safeguarding your business against various threats and vulnerabilities. With network security's increasing complexity, it's important to have a structured approach to evaluating applicants for your vacancies. Other than reviewing resumes and asking for references, there are additional approaches you can take to ensure you hire the market’s best network security professionals. 

In this guide, we’ll explore the effective strategies you can use to assess candidates for your vacant network security jobs. Here, you’ll discover the importance of reviewing educational backgrounds, conducting online and practical tests, evaluating portfolios, and observing applicants through trial periods. Each method highlighted in this piece will help you gain greater insight into a candidate’s technical abilities and potential fit within your team.

This insight piece covers the following ways you can assess candidates:

• Review Educational Backgrounds When Assessing Talent
• Get Network Security Professionals to Complete Tests
• Invite Candidates to Share Their Work Portfolios
• Assess Talent Via a Trial Period

Review Educational Backgrounds When Assessing Talent

Our first point regarding identifying and assessing high-potential talent for your network security jobs is to review their educational backgrounds. This step goes beyond just scanning through a candidate's resume. It should involve your business conducting a thorough background check of the individual and asking them direct questions regarding their education during the interview. 

Most network security experts you screen will have attained a relevant bachelor's degree, giving them the required knowledge and technical skills needed for the role. These relevant degrees can be in network engineering, information technology, computer science, or cybersecurity. 

For example, consider information technology degrees. Applicants with these qualifications will have a more applied approach to networking fundamentals and online security practices, essential for securing networks and IT infrastructure. 

Similarly, talent with a computer science degree will have theoretical knowledge of software development, algorithms, and data structures. This qualification equips applicants with the principles of networks and system security, making them capable of analyzing network vulnerabilities and combating network security threats.

Formal education and degrees are just one aspect of assessing candidates and reviewing their educational background.  Of course, a network security degree or high-level qualification in a relevant field provides the fundamental knowledge suited for network security jobs. However, network security certifications are also valuable. 

If a candidate has achieved a network security certification, it validates their expertise and skills necessary for roles within the industry. As you assess candidates for your network security jobs, you can see if they have the certifications associated with the vendors you utilize. Whether from CompTIA, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, Check Point, or another vendor, these certifications solidify an applicant's ability to stay current with evolving network threats and associated technologies.

With that said, it’s important to recognize that formal education is just one route to acquiring essential skills in network security. A candidate may not have attended a specific school or obtained a conventional degree but may still bring valuable knowledge gained through alternative pathways. Alternative pathways could include hands-on experience from self-directed projects, internships, boot camps, apprenticeships, or on-the-job training.

By valuing diverse educational paths and recognizing the skills that can be gained outside of traditional academia, your business can attract talented individuals who are fully capable of learning and excelling in the role.

Get Network Security Professionals to Complete Tests

Knowing how to assess talent as part of your network recruitment strategy could also include getting candidates to complete tests as part of their application. Whether completed online as part of the initial application or in person during the final interview stage, these tests can give you an idea of whether the individual has the core skills necessary to be successful in your vacant network security jobs.

These tests can involve the applicant completing practical assessments or answering multiple-choice questions. Whether you outsource your tests to a third-party training provider or create them internally, these tests should be designed to evaluate an applicant's problem-solving skills and technical ability.

Virtual skills tests for network security jobs should focus on the role's core responsibilities, such as designing, deploying, and maintaining security protocols. You can test candidates on how they would approach setting up a VPN, configuring firewalls, and other detection and prevention systems used within your business. Other online tests to assess candidates include presenting real-world scenarios to gauge their ability to effectively respond and troubleshoot network security. 

You can also opt for practical testing. Here, you can use real-world scenarios, perhaps past examples of network security threats your business has encountered. You could ask candidates to set up encryption, firewalls, and proxy servers and show how they would combat threats like malware, DDoS attacks, phishing, and SQL injections. Assessing candidates with these tests allows you to review their practical understanding of network protocols and stance on risk management.

If you introduce practical assessments as part of your network recruitment strategy, you could conduct these with multiple candidates and members of your network security team. These team-based tests allow you to evaluate candidates on how they respond to real-world situations and how they work with others. By including members of your existing workforce in these tests, they, too, can get a feel of whether the applicant would be a good fit from a technical and cultural perspective. 

Identifying and assessing high-potential talent by getting them to complete tests reduces bias in the hiring process. While some candidates may not stand out during the interview stage, they may present themselves as valuable assets through these tests. 

This approach allows you to hone in on an applicant's competencies, skill sets, and abilities, allowing them to showcase their real-world expertise, which can be difficult to assess from reading a resume or conducting an interview. Overall, getting network security professionals to complete tests during the application or trial period allows you to thoroughly assess an individual's ability to safeguard your business from network security threats.

Invite Candidates to Share Their Work Portfolios

One of the most effective ways to assess candidates for your contract and permanent network security jobs is to request that they share their work portfolios. Whether you request this at the initial application or before the interview stage, portfolios can shed excellent insight into a candidate's previous experience and ability to handle real-world challenges. 

These candidate portfolios can include examples of when they have worked on implementing firewall configurations, software applications, vendor-specific solutions, or other network security projects. Reviewing an applicant's portfolio lets you understand how they approach projects and the methodology behind specific tasks. It allows you to measure their skills and experience beyond what's written on their resume.

As you review the individual's portfolio, see how their work relates to the types of projects your network security team typically supports and the needs of the role you’re recruiting for. For example, if their portfolio showcases them working on vendor-specific security deployments, it can highlight their expertise using the same tools and technologies within your organization. 

You should also evaluate the types of businesses the client has supported and the scale and complexity of the projects they have completed. Again, these examples can indicate an applicant's experience working on projects of similar size to those your business works on. At the very least, these portfolios should demonstrate the candidate's potential and transferable skills that could be of value to your network security team.

When assessing talent and reviewing their portfolios, consider the diversity of the projects they have worked on and how recently these tasks were completed. If the examples they’ve included seem too similar and outdated, it could indicate a narrow skill set and gaps in their knowledge. 

However, always discuss these areas with the applicant to fully understand their experience. The fact they've only worked on similar projects might make them specialists in a particular niche. An outdated portfolio could be because the individual took a career break and wants to return to the industry by applying for your vacant network security jobs. 

Discussing an applicant’s portfolio during an interview can help you make a more informed decision about the candidate. You could ask the candidate questions about the portfolio during the interview, such as how their project impacted the business, the ROI, and other metrics. Asking these types of questions gives the individual an opportunity to expand on their portfolio while allowing them to ask specific questions about it. 

Learn more about candidate interviews by reading our blog on the Top Tips for Interviewing Network Security Specialists. 

Assess Talent Via a Trial Period

Another way to assess talent for your network security jobs is to offer trial periods to top-performing applicants. Trial periods allow candidates to show you how they can impact your business while allowing you to evaluate their technical skills, attitude, and ability to work effectively with your existing workforce. Taking this approach will give you a clear indication of whether the individual is the right fit for your organization and can handle the expectations of the role.  

Once you determine the length of the trial period, for example, six months, use the time to assign the candidate tasks relevant to the role. For example, you could ask the applicant to identify vulnerabilities within your network and create a strategy to combat these risks or to configure a firewall to safeguard your networks successfully.

During this time, you can assess the talent's approach to the project you’ve assigned them, factoring in their attention to detail and problem-solving ability. You should also set the candidate deadlines and time constraints to see how they adapt their technical ability to the pressures of real-world scenarios. Their ability to complete tasks on time, within budget, and to your required standards will demonstrate how competent an employee they are.  

In addition to assessing the candidate's technical ability, this trial period will allow you to review their soft skills. As they work within your team, you can observe their communication and teamwork skills while determining if they will be a good cultural fit for your business. Also, consider their willingness to learn and ability to take on feedback. Doing so can indicate whether the candidate has the ability and motivation to grow with your business.

Once the trial ends, you can review the candidate's performance by speaking to the wider team and the individual themselves. You can assess whether the applicant is the right fit or whether they require upskilling that you’re willing to invest in to help them reach their potential.

If you’re considering offering candidates a trial period, you can do so with the support of contract recruitment services. You can hire entry-level or experienced network security professionals for a set period. After this time, you have the flexibility to part ways with the candidate, keep them on as a temp or contractor, or bring them into your business permanently.

The Final Word on Assessing Talent for Network Security Jobs

Identifying and assessing high-potential talent for network security jobs requires more than simply reviewing resumes and conducting interviews. While the latter is still valuable to the recruitment process, employing a comprehensive assessment approach, including evaluating educational backgrounds, testing technical skills, reviewing portfolios, and offering trial periods, can help you make more informed hiring decisions.

By adopting the methods discussed in this piece, you can ensure that the people you choose have the required technical expertise and align with your company's needs and culture to strengthen your organization's network security defenses.

Recruiting for Network Security Jobs?

If your business needs support sourcing the market’s best network security professionals, we can help. Our experienced consultants are experts in guiding companies through each phase of the hiring process, including assessing candidates. With our knowledge of network recruitment and extensive talent pool, we can help connect you to the people you need to grow your organization.

Partner with us today and fill your network security jobs with your ideal talent.